Dr. Bruce Brundage has had a career filled with firsts.

He helped develop Electron Beam Tomography imaging for use in screening for coronary artery disease and had the first EBT scanner in the country dedicated to clinical work. He and his colleagues wrote the first scientific paper on coronary calcium and computed tomography, or CT, screening – an area of research that received national recognition with an $18 million National Institutes of Health grant, he said.

While working at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the 1980s, Brundage said he and his colleagues were the first to successfully treat pulmonary hypertension, an uncommon and incurable blood vessel disorder, with medication.

”Now there are a half-dozen other drugs that are better,” Brundage said, ”but it started people thinking it is possible to treat it.”

And Brundage, 68, was responsible for beginning the Heart Institute of the Cascades in Bend that promotes research and community programs. He retired from his post as medical director of the nonprofit organization in December, and the Heart Institute honored him for his contributions to the community at a fundraising event Saturday night.

”He has an excellent, long history of a lot of credentials as a nationally and internationally known cardiologist,” said Dr. Tom Combs, the Heart Institute’s new medical director. ”He certainly brought a level of expertise, connections, international reputation that was not here before that is a real asset to the community.”

Brundage and his wife, Rita, moved to Bend in 1998. At the time, he said, he was looking to get out of academic medicine in San Diego, where he was putting in 80-hour workweeks.

Combs and Brundage knew each other from serving in the U.S. Army together in the early 1970s. Brundage was also familiar with Bend cardiologists Dr. Tim Hanlan and Dr. Eddy Young, as they had both gone through his training program.

The doctors encouraged Brundage to move to Bend and work part time as a cardiologist for Bend Memorial Clinic and part time setting up the Heart Institute.

”In regards to the Heart Institute, he has administrative and organizational skills that none of the cardiologists had at that time,” said Dr. Bruce McLellan, medical director for Heart Center Cardiology in Bend. ”It was a concept, an idea, that none of us were able to quite get off the ground.”

Building the Heart Institute

The local cardiologists working at Bend Memorial Clinic in the late 1990s, as well as the cardiothoracic surgeons and administrators at St. Charles Medical Center were interested in starting a heart institute. McLellan said the idea was to have an independent organization that could look out for and coordinate the needs of various heart services that would also have a research, education and community service component.

As it evolved through the years, Brundage said, it became obvious that the Heart Institute should focus on its nonprofit priorities of research, education and community service and not be involved in the for-profit business of clinical patient care. The Heart Institute incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1999 and now has seven employees, although only one works full time.

It raises money from the community and through grants to sponsor local research projects and community programs like screening high school athletes for heart problems. Working through the institute, local physicians have published dozens of papers for medical journals.”It’s really important that the things the Heart Institute is doing are being done in this medical community … I strongly believe medicine isn’t any good without research,” Brundage said. ”That’s what we’re bringing to Bend. Bend already had an outstanding cardiovascular medical community. I believe it will be one of the top cardiovascular centers in the Northwest in the next 10 to 20 years.”

He said it is probably not typical for a community the size of Bend to have a Heart Institute, but it is also not entirely rare. Several other research organizations throughout the country are based in relatively small communities, he said, pointing to Rochester, Minn., the home of the Mayo Clinic, as an example.

”If the sun and the stars are all aligned in the proper way, it will happen,” he said. ”If you have the right collection of medical minds, it grows on itself. Excellence breeds excellence.”

Community contributions

During his time in Bend, Brundage has helped to bring an Electron Beam Tomography scanner to the area and has used it to do research on screening for coronary calcium in prevention of heart attacks. The scanner is used to detect calcium in the coronary arteries. If calcium is present, it is an indication of heart disease that can be detected long before a patient has symptoms, and the patient can be treated through medication.

”There are 150,000 people every year whose first symptom of heart disease is sudden death,” Brundage said. ”There are an additional 300,000 people whose first symptom is a heart attack.”

He would like to see calcium screening used much like mammography is used in detecting breast cancer, and said after 17 years of research it is finally being recognized as a valuable tool in preventing heart disease.

”He’s had a huge influence on everybody. He’s that kind of guy,” said Rick Martin, senior vice president of service line development for Cascade Healthcare. ”He’s built strong relationships and is constantly a force for improving the care in the community.”

Brundage will continue to be involved with the Heart Institute, serving on its board of directors, he said. He also has plans to spend more time with his wife, three grown children and two grandchildren.

And, he said, he hopes to travel, making up for the many trips he canceled through the years because of his career.

”Australia and New Zealand are first on the list … I’ve never been to South America. I’ve never been to Africa. I’ve never been to India,” he said. ”And I have to play all the golf courses in Ireland and Scotland, of course.”